This year, the event involved 120 early-career research scientists, engineers, technologists, and mathematicians, shortlisted from hundreds of applicants. Finalists presented their research to dozens of politicians and a panel of expert judges, with prizes awarded for the posters that best communicated high level science, engineering, or mathematics to a lay audience.
Stephen Metcalfe MP, Chairman of the Parliamentary and Scientific Committee, said: 'This annual competition is an important date in the parliamentary calendar because it gives MPs an opportunity to speak to a wide range of the country's best young researchers. These early career engineers, mathematicians, and scientists are the architects of our future and STEM for BRITAIN is politicians' best opportunity to meet them and understand their work.'
RDM DPhil student Grace Meaker, in the biological and biomedical sciences category, won the Physiological Society Award for her poster entitled Sticky Stem Cells: How PVA promotes blood stem cell production. She said: 'I was beyond honoured to have been selected to present my work and to have won the Physiology Society Prize at STEM for Britain this year. It was great to speak to my MP, Anneliese Dodds, about how we are using PVA to grow stem cells in the lab to permit novel discoveries about the biology and physiology of stem cells. It is such an exciting time to be in stem cell research and I can't wait to see how the field develops!'
Jennifer Clara Herrmann was also one of the finalists.